THE SUN RISES ON HAY

A perfect day, the sun shining and the air restive for the festivities ahead, the buzz of budding ideas and eager minds, the open air, writers and poets for company – a beautiful start to the Hay Festival. In the three-day (November 20-22) festival, 150 Bangladeshi authors and performers and over 60 international participants from 13 countries share their words and ideas in more than 80 sessions on a diverse range of issues, including literature, art, journalism and music.

Rethinking short fiction at Hay

Amiya Halder
 

Photo: Ridwan Adid Rupon

To paraphrase poet Kumar Chakrabarty at the Cosmic Tent today, we are witnessing the death of the grand narrative. Never again will the likes of Homer and Proust grace the pages of world literature. This is the age of the short story, the most powerful medium the written word is yet to take.

Be it the revolutionary 1900s or the experimental 80s, the subcontinent has always seen an exciting flow of short fiction. Prominent Bangladeshi writer, Selina Hussein, observed that the genre-defining works of Bonkimchandra Chattopadhyay, Tara Shankar and Hassan Azizul Haque, perfectly entwined with the collective thoughts of their times, set the bar for today's literature. Although great in its own right, our short fiction faces boundless possibilities, stressed Parvez Hossein, who was moderating the session.

On reimagining stories, styles and settings, poet Kumar Chakrabarty stated that we need to move away from our age-old fixation on Latin American and European literature, and the need to emulate it. Break down the traditional storyline and structure, experiment with segmented narratives – the historical demand for novels is long gone, he added. Factual writing and late post-modern short fiction is superior to the hybrid novel, diluted with its hodgepodge of fairytale, metaphysics and personality, said the poet.

Selina Hussein felt quite the opposite: “Write however you want, whatever you want. Write the new 'Iliad' if you can. Do not be shackled by popular and superficial demand.” Bangladeshi author, Papree Rahman, agreed: “Alice Munro, Nobel laureate of recent times, did not invent some new style or form. It does not matter because we have had the inherent urge to tell stories since time immemorial.”

Parvez Hossein put it beautifully in his closing remarks at the session: “Obviously, we will not tell stories like we did in the past. Wherever we lay our eyes, wherever we place our fingers, there is a story waiting to be told. Think new thoughts.”

Hay Festival 2014
Serious audience of literature and arts and young, curious minds alike walked around on the premises of the Bangla Academy, soaking in the atmosphere of the Hay Festival to its fullest on the opening day. Be it at the book stalls, sessions or the lawn, there was plenty for everyone. And as the weekend relieves Dhaka'ites of their ever-hectic schedules, there can only be more to explore and experience.